So, you’re preparing to apply to graduate school. Your to-do list includes ordering transcripts, taking any necessary exams, writing a statement of purpose and asking for letters of recommendation. But there’s one more item you shouldn’t overlook: writing your graduate school resume.
Wait … what?
Yes, you generally need to submit a resume with your grad school application. A grad school resume is similar to a standard professional resume, but it has a specific focus: how your previous education and experience have prepared you to undertake advanced study. And like a professional resume, it should tell a compelling story about you.
How to Write a Standout Grad School Resume
We asked two admissions experts from the University of Washington for their top tips about writing a grad school resume. Here’s what they shared.
1. Put Your Education First
How should you organize your grad school resume? On most professional resumes, your education comes at the end of the document. Not here!
Because the specific objective of this document is to get admitted to graduate school, you should list your education on the first page. This section should prominently include details like:
- Undergraduate degree and major, and the school you graduated from
- Your undergraduate GPA
- Other degrees or certificates you’ve earned
You can also include academic awards and roles with campus organizations here. Or, if you have enough of these, they might warrant their own section (see tips 3 and 4).
It’s also valuable to include info about courses you’ve taken that are related to the degree program you’re applying for.
“The resume is a great place to showcase courses that meet prerequisites for the program,” says Crystal Galván, a graduate adviser in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Bothell. “Even though you’ll also submit your academic transcripts, you can use the education section of your resume to highlight particularly relevant courses.”
2. Show all your work
The admissions committee wants to see the evolution of your career and get a full sense of who you are, so go ahead and include your entire professional work history — even if it stretches the document to two or three pages.
“More is better on the grad school resume,” says Randell Hernandez, director of admissions for the Executive Master of Business Administration at the UW Foster School of Business. “In the Executive MBA program, for example, we’re looking to understand the totality of an applicant’s experience — to get a sense of your career growth and the impact you’ve had in different roles.”
For someone applying to an MBA program, for example, that means including specific details about leadership or management responsibilities in each role. It also means quantifying the impact you had (e.g., “Led department to 20% increase in sales year-over-year”). If you’re applying to law school, you’ll want to emphasize any experience that relates to the legal field. And so on.
3. Don’t Forget Research Projects and/or Fieldwork
Any research experience — including capstone or research projects you are or were involved in — is important to include [on your resume].
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Crystal Galván, graduate adviser, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Bothell
Even though this is
not a formal curriculum vitae (CV), your grad school resume is a great place to include any experience you have with research, workshops or academic articles you’ve published. You can include them even if they aren’t directly related to the academic field you’re applying to, because that shows accomplishment and expertise.
“Any research experience — including capstone or research projects you are or were involved in — is important to include,” Galván says. “This demonstrates your engagement with academia, and that you’re up-to-date with research in the field. If you’ve hosted community workshops or presented at any academic conferences, be sure to include those as well.”
Did you win any academic awards? Include those, either in the Education section (noted above), in this section, or in a separate section dedicated to your honors and awards (if you have many to showcase!).
If you have substantial research experience, you can list that in its own section on your resume. This allows it to stand out and makes it easier for admissions readers to find.
4. Unpaid work counts too
Remember that a prospective graduate program will value all your experience, not just what you were paid for. Internships and volunteer roles (both on and off campus) help illustrate what you're passionate about and how you took the initiative to make a difference in your profession or community.
“We appreciate leadership experience in all areas, including professional associations, civic groups, etc.,” Hernandez says. “Recruiting and motivating a group of volunteers requires next-level abilities that can directly apply to an MBA student’s ‘day job.’ And these commitments also offer a window into a candidate’s humanity.”
This content can be placed in its own section — possible header: “Leadership and Extracurricular Activities — located below your professional experience.
5. Write clearly and proofread carefully
Nothing spoils a first impression like typos and grammatical errors in a resume. If this isn’t your strong suit, have a friend who’s good with words read it over for you. Many times, fresh eyes can catch things that you miss.
Also, it’s possible that you use a lot of abbreviations or insider terms known only in your field. Those should be spelled out for clarity or removed from your grad-school resume if they're not relevant to your application.
“I see a lot of acronyms in applications, especially from people coming from the tech field or the military,” Hernandez says. “Remember that you’re giving this to an admissions reader who may know little or nothing about your particular job function or industry. It’s important to use terminology that people outside your field would understand.”
6. Link to your LinkedIn
The world often judges us by our online presence, and grad school reviewers are no different.
“It’s natural to want to Google someone, so it’s a good idea to include a LinkedIn profile link on your resume,” Galván says. “LinkedIn is a great way for applicants to illustrate their expertise, professional experience, skills and education — beyond the resume.”
7. Don’t be afraid to ask questions
When in doubt, reach out! The advisers and staff at graduate schools are there to answer your questions about the application process.
“Most of our MBA programs at the Foster School offer application workshops, which include detailed guidance about resumes, and we also supply that content on our website,” Hernandez says. “People do themselves a disservice sometimes by not seeking guidance from the graduate program about what their resume should include.”
Learn More
Want to discover more helpful content about grad school? Check out our go-to guide for applying to graduate school for links to additional articles.